5 charged with diverting stimulus money for tribe

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A Chippewa Cree tribal leader, a former state lawmaker and three others used a fake billing system and a shell company to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus aid meant for the Montana tribe, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The Chippewa Cree Tribe received $33 million in federal funding between 2009 and 2010 for construction of a $361 million pipeline to supply fresh drinking water for the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and surrounding counties in northern Montana. Most of that $33 million came from the 2009 American Recover and Reinvestment act, also known as the stimulus.

The CEO of the tribal company that headed the pipeline project, Chippewa Cree Construction Corp., awarded contracts and authorized cash transfers in a complex web of transactions to embezzle and launder the money, according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The cash ended up in the bank accounts of intermediaries and in a tribal rodeo account controlled by tribal council member John Chance Houle.

More than $100,000 was used to start a Billings pipe supply company owned by the construction company's CEO and contracting officer, former Rep. Tony Belcourt. His new company, MT Waterworks, was later awarded a $633,000 stimulus contract to supply the water pipeline project.

Another $62,000 was used to buy a house in Box Elder in the name of Belcourt's wife, Hailey Lee Belcourt.

It is unclear what happened to the rest of the money after it was parked in the rodeo account, the account of a consulting firm and in the personal account of the woman who ran the consulting firm.

Federal prosecutors are seeking the return of $311,000, the real estate that was purchased and ownership of MT Waterworks.

Houle, the Belcourts, Tammy Leischner, and her husband, Mark Leischner, were arraigned Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Great Falls on seven charges of theft, fraud and money laundering. They pleaded not guilty.

Tammy Leischner's father, James Eastlick, will be arraigned at a later date.